Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos acquired the Washington Post for $250 million in cash. Shares of WPO stock went up more than 5 percent after hours, shortly after the deal was announced.

Why might investors have been so happy? The paper's former parent company may have just gotten way more profitable. According to The Washington Post Co.'s 2012 annual report, the company earned $581.7 million in revenue from newspaper publishing operations -- but the business was not profitable. In fact, newspaper publishing hurt WPO's earnings to the tune of $53.7 million in 2012.

Put another way: WPO might have just boosted its overall net income by roughly 30 percent, just by getting rid of a business that generated half a billion dollars in revenue in 2012.

What would you rather have for $275 million: a newspaper with global recognition plus $25 million in spending money, or 10 years of Alex Rodriguez-level production at third base?

Rodriguez signed his current contract with the New York Yankees in Dec. 2007, and as of Opening Day 2013 had received a little more than half of the balance of that deal ($158 million). The other $117 million was to be paid to him between 2013 and 2017. Of course, there are now questions about how much of his 2014 salary he'll actually see.

Regardless of how many games he plays next year, however, Rodriguez will get at least one more paycheck: he's owed a $3 million-portion of his original signing bonus on Jan. 15 of next year.